Tula State Pedagogical University named after L.N. Tolstoy

Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University was founded on 19 September, 1938 as an independent institution of higher education. 18 July 1958 it was named after Lev Tolstoy. 29 December 1994 the university was awarded the status of State Pedagogical University.

In 2009, the university became a laureate of the contest «Gold Medal «European Quality» in the «Top 100 universities in Russia» category and won in the category «Best Russian Specialized University».

In 2009, Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University signed the Magna Charta of Universities at the University of Bologna (Italy).

In 2012, the univer­sity was included in the National Register of the «Leading scientific organizations of Russia».

At present, there are 10 faculties at Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pe­dagogical University, 138 basic educational programs of higher edu­cation, 24 specialties and postgraduate programs, 3 doctoral programs of 10 branches of science. The university provides a wide range of programs of additional education and training.

The university infrastructure includes six academic buildings with well-equipped current technology. There are ten faculties. They are Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Information Technology, Faculty of Technology and Business, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Psychology, International Faculty, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Physical Culture, Faculty of Russian Philology and Documentation and Faculty of History and Law.

All academic buildings are equipped with a local area network, computer, langu­age labs and mul­ti­media class­rooms and are provided with the resource access to the research lib­rary. The univer­sity has put in place all the necessary arrangements for successful learning and self-develop­ment of students.

The structure of Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical Univer­sity (TSPU) contains Center of Scientific and Educational Lite­rature, which deals with the information space development of the university and provi­des the users soft goods, services and facilities.

There is an access to the Scientific Electronic Library «e-Library», full-text databases of national periodicals «East View», electronic library system «Uni­versity library online», «Ibooks», full-text database of foreign scientific publica­tions: Science Online, Annual Reviews, Sage Journals online, Oxford University Press, Cambridge Journals Digital Archive for students and staff.

Center of Scientific and Educational Literature, in addition to traditional library service departments with library and reading rooms, has an e-learning laboratory, electronic reading room with access to the resources of Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.

Faculties of Tula State Pedagogical University named after L.N. Tolstoy:

• The Faculty of Mathematics,
• Physics and Information Technologies
• The Faculty of Foreign Languages
• The Faculty of Russian Philology and Document Science
• The Faculty of History and Law
• The Faculty of Psychology
• The Faculty of Technology and Busyness
• The Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
• The Faculty of Natural Sciences
• The Faculty of Physical Education
• The International Faculty

Student Accommodation

On TSPU campus there are 4 dormitories. Accommodations in dormitories of the University are designed for temporary living and living of students from other cities and foreign students enrolled during full-time studying, as well as university entrants for the period of admission tests. In hostels there are comfort living conditions for living, learning and recreation of students, reading rooms, lounges, a gym, sports fields, a leisure center.

Hostels are located in close proximity to the main academic buildings.

Tula City

Tula is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It was first mentioned as a fortress of the Principality of Ryazan in 1146. Extremely important defensive value of Tula was related to its position on the southern edge of the state (constant threat of raids of the Crimean Tatars) and proximity to the Upper Oka (the border with Lithuania). This caused constant concern for strengthening Tula as a key defense point.

Tula features

In 1503, Tula was annexed to the Grand Principality of Moscow. After it, a brick citadel (Kremlin) was built. In 1552, the fortress of Tula withstood the siege of the troops led by the Crimean Khan Devlet I Giray, who tried to prevent the march of the Moscow troops of Ivan the Terrible to Kazan.

By the middle of the 17th century, when the border of the Russian state moved to the south, Tula began to turn into a commercial and industrial center. In 1712, by decree of Peter I, construction of the first state arms factory in the Russian Empire began in Tula. The town became the center of weapons production and metal products.

Today, Tula is one of the major Russian industrial and commercial centers. The leading industries are ferrous metallurgy, machine building, and metalworking.

The coat of arms of Tula reflects the character of the city associated with the production of armaments. The main holiday is the City Day, held annually on the second Saturday of September.

The climate is temperate continental, characterized by warm summers and moderately cold winters. The average temperature in February is minus 7.3 degrees Celsius, in July – plus 19.4 degrees Celsius.

Tula is famous for its traditional Russian cookies made with honey and gingerbread – pryaniki. In the West, Tula is perhaps best known as the center of samovar production: the Russian equivalent of “coals to Newcastle” is “You don’t take a samovar to Tula”. (The saying is falsely ascribed to the writer and playwright Anton Chekhov, whose made a satirical portrait of one of his characters saying “Taking your wife to Paris is the same as taking your own samovar to Tula”.)

The most popular tourist attraction in Tula Oblast is Yasnaya Polyana, the home and burial place of the writer Leo Tolstoy. It is situated 14 kilometers (9 miles) south-west of the city. It was here that Tolstoy wrote his celebrated novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina.